Gardeners attain master status

Joan Anderson of Landisburg has felt at home in
a garden since the age of 10 and has carried her love of horticulture
with her throughout her life.

Recently, she attended a 14-week master
gardener course sponsored by Cumberland County Extension in Carlisle.
Along with six other Perry County residents, she completed 30 hours of
training. The course covered topics such as botany, plant propagation,
insects and diseases, plant identification, tree and small fruit
culture, native plants and diagnosing plant problems.

“It was extremely intense,” said Anderson. “You get the information from a college course given in one lesson.”

And if anyone should know, Anderson should.

She began vegetable gardening with her brother during World War II with a family victory garden.

Victory gardens were vegetable and fruit
gardens that people living in both rural and urban areas grew to raise
food for their families, friends and neighbors to reduce pressure on the
public food supply.

“The food was rationed back then,” said Anderson.

The gardens allowed for more supplies to
be shipped to troops around the world. When her brother went off to war,
she was about 13 years old.

“I was old enough to do it myself,” she
said of nurturing the tomatoes, green beans, lima beans and squash that
she grew then and still enjoys growing today.

In 1948, she studied horticulture at Rutgers in New Brunswick, N.J.

“There were few women in agriculture
school in 1948 and only two of us were studying horticulture,” said
Anderson. “When the other woman switched to animal science I didn’t want
to be the only one, so I switched, too.”

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree
she went to work at the Rockefeller Institute under Dr. Richard Shope, a
famous medical researcher.

“I wasn’t trained in lab work and it was a frustrating time,” she said.

Although she never made a career out of horticulture, her love for plant science endured.

Last spring, when she saw a notice in this newspaper about the Master Gardener program, it caught her attention.

“I called to inquire about it and asked them if I was too old.”

By the end of August she started the
weekly classes along with fellow Perry Countians Susan Beinhaur of
Landisburg, Dolly Golen and Linda Sieber of Shermans Dale, Susan Smith
and Patricia Welfley of Newport, and Staria Reisinger of New Bloomfield.

The Master Gardener program was
established to assist Cooperative Extension in reaching the consumer
horticulture audience. Participants receive their expertise through
publications and teaching/resource materials and through classes
conducted by Penn State University faculty and Extension staff.

The group finished the course in December,
and in February they were required to do a 15-minute class presentation
before their peers.

Anderson’s presentation was on planting
bare-root trees, a presentation she will repeat at Ashcombe’s in
Shermans Dale on April 14.

When participants complete the course they become community volunteers who teach other home gardeners.

A test is given at both the beginning and end of the course to measure how much the student has learned.

“You had to read and study,” said
Anderson, who flipped through a thick notebook of course materials. “The
hardest part is the time commitment that is required.”

The only cost involved in the course, said Anderson, was teaching materials which cost about $80.

“It’s a very cheap education, and very worthwhile,” she said. “You keep the materials to use as a guide.”

For Anderson, the most useful part of the
course was the lesson on integrated pest management, which considers the
use of a number of safe, environmentally friendly pest control options
before the use of insecticides or pesticides.

The most enjoyable class, she said, was
the lesson on propagating houseplants. “It was more hands-on and gave
you something to take along home.”

Being a Master Gardener is more than just
completing the course. For the first year, the trainee must dedicate 50
hours of volunteer time.

Anderson already is earning volunteer
hours by serving on two committees with the Cumberland County group —
marketing and publicity and horticulture therapy committees. The Perry
County residents also are planning group meetings at the Cooperative
Extension office in New Bloomfield. They hope to have presentations and
workshops under the guidance of Extension Agent David Swartz.

In addition to the many volunteer
activities in which Anderson is involved, she has a sizeable vegetable
garden and numerous flower gardens she tends to from spring to fall.

“I have poppies and mallow that came from my grandmother’s garden from the 1930s,” she said.

She also has coralbells that were given to her in 1965 by Edna Bishop who ran the general store in Centre.

Anderson extends an invitation to the
public to attend special presentations that will be held at Ashcombe’s
in Shermans Dale on Saturdays from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.